It seems that every new day brings some fresh challenge into my life. Whether for good or for bad, i am determined to remain unbowed, though sometimes it is really difficult. This is a persuasive arguement that a wrote sometime ago, read at your leisure :)
We all strive for perfection. Perfection in the things we do, in the way we look, our understanding of things around us. We leave no stone unturned in satisfying this desire, no path too dark or untendable. In the race to get to the desired end in mind, it is so easy to forget the flaws and imperfections that make us human. Often, the best of who we can be, is the current fixation in our lives. A fellow student in school who scores straight As, is an athelete, and is popular and successful. The fashion style or haircut of a famous actor or actress, her mannerisms or her charisma. Our desires for everything we dont have, his success, her looks, even God’s understanding and eternal life. We are distracted and pulled in so many directions, trying to be everything but ourselves. But who is ourselves? Are we defined by our moral values? Our looks? Our acheivements? How successful we are financially or in the number of friends and connections we have? Are we made of the ideals we undertake, the actions we do?
Morality and virtue can be reasoned with logic and expounded into circular logic to be only good--when applied in the right situations. We must not do acts of kindness in the airport, others might take advantage of us to smuggle goods. We must not give money to the old and poor along the streets because there has been cases of fake ‘ beggars’ being picked up by opulent cars after a day of ‘ work ‘. We live in a society where i have to stop and wonder, no to CONSIDER, whether its alright if i help an old woman carry her groceries up the overhead bridge. So what kind of person am i?
Not everyone is borned a historic figure. Not everyone is born with greatness in mind. Not everyone is borned perfect. Thus it is so easy, in our struggle for perfection, in our quest to be remembered, to live out our lives through simulated perfection. Drama serials on television, epic storys in the movies, adventure and fantasy in story books. We see the beauty and flawless features of actors and actresses, the meaningful and adventure filled lives of heros in movie scripts. Destiny in the worded lines of story books. So much so that everytime we look in the mirror, we are filled with dismay, and an unimaginable disgust for what we are NOT.
Take away all this, what am i left with? Who am i then? Without a name, or a label telling me who, what or where i belong--my name, my family tree, my home address, my occupation, my contacts. When i was borned, my acheivements to date, my latitude of experiences, my abilities. Can i tell you who i am? I do not know, but i am certain of this. No matter the fallacy of the world, of the society, of your spheres of influences, you are your own person. There is a choice. No matter how the logic and reasoning of your principles and ideals are dissected and torn apart in front of you, hold fast. The choice is still yours to make.
Life puts us in different situations, some less fortunate than others, but the life is still ours. There is a choice to be. It cant be said that virtue was not convenient, or i did not want to do that, but i had to. A decision was made by you, in your brain, and the order to carry it out sent to your body--A choice. Yours. Morality merely supports and influences who we are, but the choice is still ours, everytime, everyday, of what we do about it. In the end, from the greatest to the least, we all perish, what and who we are, depends on how we choose to live the life that has been given us.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Tolerance vs. Refinement
This is an article taken from the Chinese section of last week’s ‘My Paper’. I’ve attempted to translate it here, so pardon me if it sounds weird. I’m still more comfortable with translating English to Chinese. Of course not very pro, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten a certificate of participation for some bilingual translation competition in sec 3. I used to collect meaningful and well-written essays submitted by readers of the Chinese newspaper. Hardly do that nowadays, so I really only have that few clippings. This article about tolerance vs. refinement somehow relates to the bible’s teaching on being slow to anger. So ENJOY!!!
All those pent-up anger and frustrations from work we yearn to vent them out but if we complain too much to our friends, they may get irritated or something. Therefore, many people will tell us to be more tolerant and gracious about it.
People like to equate tolerance to refinement but Ms Shenton, the author, begs to differ. She believes that tolerance is a low level thing whilst refinement is a high level thing. (I hope I won’t be using too much thing)
When we talk about tolerance, we often have this mentality: I can’t afford to offend you now, so I’ll tolerate. But you wait and see, one day...... Such tolerance has a deep underlying motive; you tolerate only to hide or protect yourself. However, your eyes are dead-fixed on your target. When the time is ripe, you will jump out and attack.
In reality, these people are highly respected. They are deemed to be intelligent and material for success.
Their tolerance is in fact a plot, a hideous act. What’s more scary is that such tolerance can perverse the human mind.
Let me tell you a story from the ancient history of China. Before the Tang dynasty was this short-lived Duo dynasty. The good-for-nothing emperor of this Duo dynasty is called Yang Guang. He demonstrated tolerance to the max.
Before he became an emperor, he could take a lot of things lying down. He was not particular about his dressing or meals and did not have a servant. He even married an extremely ugly wife.
In this way, he tolerated for 10 years. Both the emperor and his subjects felt that he would make a good emperor.
Who would expect that after this fellow became an emperor, there was a drastic change in his personality. He became extremely extravagant and useless. Not long after, Duo dynasty fell.
This is the result of tolerance.
Tolerance can enable a person to grab certain kinds of benefits but such perverseness often causes him to do the wrong things. Once he can take it no longer, he will resort to foolish acts.
Refinement is different. It is like pardoning and forgiveness; it’s a higher intellect. Refinement also requires tolerance but such tolerance does not derive from the basis of revenge and self-centredness. This tolerance is to get rid of the anger which enters the body, maintaining the stability of the mind and emotions throughout.
Tolerance is a kind of attack. Because you need to attack, you need to defend. Refinement does not require defense, because you have never thought of attacking.
To become a company’s managerial talent, the more you need to turn tolerance into refinement. Because of the power and influence you hold in your hands, if you survive on mere tolerance, you will vent it out on someone someday when you can hold it no more. In the end, you will only turn your organisation into scattered sand.
If you can turn tolerance into refinement, you will consider first the benefits of others. It’s not easy to be refined but once you grasp the different elements, you can develop your own charm and become the great general.
That was some food for thought....
An interesting question revisited
Girlfriends and wives love to ask their spouse this age-old question. We hardly hear men ask this question maybe because women are really quite bo liao sometimes. If your mother and me both fall into the sea, assuming both of us can’t swim and you can only save one, who will you save?
Dead-meat: Many men will avoid answering because either way makes you a heartless creature.
Liar: He will say save the mother in front of the mother and say save the wife in front of the wife. So fake!
Excuse me: Just say they can’t swim let alone save the other two.
Resourceful: This is what I heard employers will ask. Your purpose is to make any hopeless situation look hopeful! Before you save anyone, call the fire engine or whoever. While waiting for help to arrive, save one of them and hopefully the other also gets rescued later on.
Cheesy: This is what I heard from my colleague. Of course save the girlfriend/ wife (without hesitation). His parent(s) have already passed on.
Romantic: This is a really good one and first time I’ve heard about it from another colleague. With this one, you can’t go very wrong. The boyfriend says he will save the mother. How can you forsake you mother for a girl who’s not even your wife right, so a pat on his back. But after that, he will jump into the water and die with his girlfriend. This is so terribly touching. How can it not melt your heart?
To the guys out there, good luck!!!
Random talk
There’s this toilet below my office which I normally use. Pasted on the wall is a sign which reads “Please lift the toilet seat before you pee”. Huh? Then what’s the toilet seat for? If it’s for guys only, I can understand, but not for every one right?
I think the bus handle is an amazing invention except that I don't understand why there's allowance for so much movement. It doesn't help that when the bus makes a sharp turn, I have to stabilise myself with all my might. I don't suppose I'm that light but it seems like I'm the only one so prone to sliding from one end of the bus to another.
I always thought Proforma Invoice was Performa Invoice. Sam Heng will know what I’m talking about. I’m actually that blind not to have noticed that even though I’ve handled many Proforma Invoice.
Angeline – A Story of Love
All those pent-up anger and frustrations from work we yearn to vent them out but if we complain too much to our friends, they may get irritated or something. Therefore, many people will tell us to be more tolerant and gracious about it.
People like to equate tolerance to refinement but Ms Shenton, the author, begs to differ. She believes that tolerance is a low level thing whilst refinement is a high level thing. (I hope I won’t be using too much thing)
When we talk about tolerance, we often have this mentality: I can’t afford to offend you now, so I’ll tolerate. But you wait and see, one day...... Such tolerance has a deep underlying motive; you tolerate only to hide or protect yourself. However, your eyes are dead-fixed on your target. When the time is ripe, you will jump out and attack.
In reality, these people are highly respected. They are deemed to be intelligent and material for success.
Their tolerance is in fact a plot, a hideous act. What’s more scary is that such tolerance can perverse the human mind.
Let me tell you a story from the ancient history of China. Before the Tang dynasty was this short-lived Duo dynasty. The good-for-nothing emperor of this Duo dynasty is called Yang Guang. He demonstrated tolerance to the max.
Before he became an emperor, he could take a lot of things lying down. He was not particular about his dressing or meals and did not have a servant. He even married an extremely ugly wife.
In this way, he tolerated for 10 years. Both the emperor and his subjects felt that he would make a good emperor.
Who would expect that after this fellow became an emperor, there was a drastic change in his personality. He became extremely extravagant and useless. Not long after, Duo dynasty fell.
This is the result of tolerance.
Tolerance can enable a person to grab certain kinds of benefits but such perverseness often causes him to do the wrong things. Once he can take it no longer, he will resort to foolish acts.
Refinement is different. It is like pardoning and forgiveness; it’s a higher intellect. Refinement also requires tolerance but such tolerance does not derive from the basis of revenge and self-centredness. This tolerance is to get rid of the anger which enters the body, maintaining the stability of the mind and emotions throughout.
Tolerance is a kind of attack. Because you need to attack, you need to defend. Refinement does not require defense, because you have never thought of attacking.
To become a company’s managerial talent, the more you need to turn tolerance into refinement. Because of the power and influence you hold in your hands, if you survive on mere tolerance, you will vent it out on someone someday when you can hold it no more. In the end, you will only turn your organisation into scattered sand.
If you can turn tolerance into refinement, you will consider first the benefits of others. It’s not easy to be refined but once you grasp the different elements, you can develop your own charm and become the great general.
That was some food for thought....
An interesting question revisited
Girlfriends and wives love to ask their spouse this age-old question. We hardly hear men ask this question maybe because women are really quite bo liao sometimes. If your mother and me both fall into the sea, assuming both of us can’t swim and you can only save one, who will you save?
Dead-meat: Many men will avoid answering because either way makes you a heartless creature.
Liar: He will say save the mother in front of the mother and say save the wife in front of the wife. So fake!
Excuse me: Just say they can’t swim let alone save the other two.
Resourceful: This is what I heard employers will ask. Your purpose is to make any hopeless situation look hopeful! Before you save anyone, call the fire engine or whoever. While waiting for help to arrive, save one of them and hopefully the other also gets rescued later on.
Cheesy: This is what I heard from my colleague. Of course save the girlfriend/ wife (without hesitation). His parent(s) have already passed on.
Romantic: This is a really good one and first time I’ve heard about it from another colleague. With this one, you can’t go very wrong. The boyfriend says he will save the mother. How can you forsake you mother for a girl who’s not even your wife right, so a pat on his back. But after that, he will jump into the water and die with his girlfriend. This is so terribly touching. How can it not melt your heart?
To the guys out there, good luck!!!
Random talk
There’s this toilet below my office which I normally use. Pasted on the wall is a sign which reads “Please lift the toilet seat before you pee”. Huh? Then what’s the toilet seat for? If it’s for guys only, I can understand, but not for every one right?
I think the bus handle is an amazing invention except that I don't understand why there's allowance for so much movement. It doesn't help that when the bus makes a sharp turn, I have to stabilise myself with all my might. I don't suppose I'm that light but it seems like I'm the only one so prone to sliding from one end of the bus to another.
I always thought Proforma Invoice was Performa Invoice. Sam Heng will know what I’m talking about. I’m actually that blind not to have noticed that even though I’ve handled many Proforma Invoice.
Angeline – A Story of Love
This is a story from those little books that you get from gift shops. My friend gave this to me quite a long time ago but I’m revisiting it to share with you and bring some warmth to your heart as well. Enjoy!!!
Somewhere in the evening sky a little angel lived on a puffy white cloud. Her name was Angeline.
One day she saw herself in a shiny raindrop...... And realised that her wings were very, very small. Angeline tried to think of ways to make them look bigger.
“I know, I’ll glue extra curly fuzzy feathers all over them.”...... But they just blew off.
Then she thought, “I’ll paint them bright colours”, and ran for a brush......But she just looked funny.
She even tried to hide them under a giant, enormous straw hat with lots and lots of fancy flowers...... But she just looked silly.
Angeline felt very sad. “How could anyone love an angel with such itsy-bitsy wings?” She softly whispered.
Then she started to cry.
As she gently wiped away a tear, she felt a bump. A big, dark cloud blew by and almost knocked her over. Angeline watched it slide past and sadly thought, “I’ll always look strange. I can’t fix my wings and they will never grow.”
Suddenly she had an idea.
“I’ll jump into this cloud and sail far away into the sky where no one will ever see me.” So she hopped on the fluffy cloud and floated like a big, white bubble into the still blue night.
With a big sigh, the little angel tucked herself in and fell fast asleep. But as she glided along she began to slowly sink deeper and deeper into the cloud’s soft, black center.
Angeline tumbled upside down and sideways until...... She finally landed on the bottom with a gentle thud.
She was all alone and very, very scared.
Suddenly she looked down and saw a beautiful rainbow.
“Oh my,” she sighed, “Maybe if I jump on this rainbow it will take me somewhere... Anywhere... Away from this gloomy, sad place.”
Angeline began to slide down...down...down until... THUMP!
She landed on a soft warm blanket. Angeline could see nothing in the shadows. “Oh no, another scary place.” The angel stared into the darkness and realised she was on a little girl’s bed.
Then she saw the little girl...Hiding behind a big pillow.
“I’m so afraid of the dark,” she whispered.
“I know just how you feel,” Angeline cried. “But I’m here now so you don’t have to be frightened anymore.” And with that the little girl scooped up the angel in her arms and held her tight.
Her tears dried, her cries stopped and she drifted off to sleep.
Angeline never felt so loved and cared for. She was so happy that even her wings looked a little bigger. And from that day on the little girl and the angel were together, wach helping the other in their own way.
And just as there are stars in the sky, there’s a special angel for every little girl and boy...... waiting to be held and loved.
Whether you feel like the angel or the little girl, I hope the story meant something to you. What I make of this story is two different ways of looking at it.
Firstly, God loves us like the angel and the best part being He understands every fear that goes through our heart.
Secondly, we put ourselves in the angel’s shoes and realise we are never too inadequate to love others. The point is whether we are willing to find that someone who needs your love to love.
meapple
Sunday, May 18, 2008
19th may prayer request!
My sister is crying again... she came down suddenly last night while my mom and i were watching TV and asked if she was fat. According to my mom she has been doing that alot recently, until my mom told her that she had to stop thinking like that, that such thoughts were untrue... Anyway my mom was so happy that she and a friend attended a church event yesterday, the topic of discussion was about cutting... and today she is crying badly again. She locked herself in her room, and wont let my mom in, until mom got the key... Sigh, it really seems to have no end, and if i weary so about this, how much so does my mom?
Sorry have not been posting much, mainly because there hasnt been many nice things to post about. Prayer request!-- May God help my sister to overcome her problems and mindset, give my mom strength as she helps my sister, and grant me the emphathy and patience to continue loving her.
Sorry have not been posting much, mainly because there hasnt been many nice things to post about. Prayer request!-- May God help my sister to overcome her problems and mindset, give my mom strength as she helps my sister, and grant me the emphathy and patience to continue loving her.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Isn't it still water?
Methodist churches practise baptism in three modes: immersion, pouring and sprinkling. Have you ever wondered what’s the difference between them?
The most unanimously agreed on and biblically supported method is immersion. In fact, it’s much easier to find articles on the net arguing about the other two methods being objectionable. The significance of immersion lies in its reference to our burial with Christ “by baptism unto death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). To come out of the baptismal water is like rising from the dead to newness of life, “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11).
Pouring speaks of the cleansing we receive by the “washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6). Similarly, pouring also signifies the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the believers (Acts 2:17; 10:45).
Baptism by sprinkling has perhaps an older tradition, with its roots in the Old Testament ritual of sprinkling the blood of the sacrifice upon the garments of the priest to signify that “he and his garments shall be holy” (Exod. 29:21). To be sprinkled means that we have been set apart for God’s service. More often, however, sprinkling with blood (Lev. 4:5), water (Num. 8:7), or with oil (Lev. 14:16) signifies cleansing.
However, baptism is still baptism. The attitude and intention are much more important than the mode that one chooses to undertake. I’m in no position to argue which modes are right or wrong but I’m sure God need not work in only one way. At least we agree that baptism is a mandate from God. That’s what matters. People like to argue over ways of doing things, stance on certain issues, which denomination is better blah blah blah..... Intellectually stimulating though it may be, sometimes it may not be a bad thing to have different denominations. As my TRACkers pastor said, different kinds of services and church environment may appeal to different kinds of people. Every one is different and if they can find one where they are comfortable worshipping God in, we should rejoice. In other words, we can reach out to people using a variety of baits. At the end of the day, we are still brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t it?
However, baptism is still baptism. The attitude and intention are much more important than the mode that one chooses to undertake. I’m in no position to argue which modes are right or wrong but I’m sure God need not work in only one way. At least we agree that baptism is a mandate from God. That’s what matters. People like to argue over ways of doing things, stance on certain issues, which denomination is better blah blah blah..... Intellectually stimulating though it may be, sometimes it may not be a bad thing to have different denominations. As my TRACkers pastor said, different kinds of services and church environment may appeal to different kinds of people. Every one is different and if they can find one where they are comfortable worshipping God in, we should rejoice. In other words, we can reach out to people using a variety of baits. At the end of the day, we are still brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t it?
Workplace Woes
Today’s my 5th day at my workplace, somewhere near Boon Lay. My nightmare begins the moment I get out of the train at Boon Lay MRT. It doesn’t help even if you’re that close to the escalator because people literally rush or run to the escalator. I never realised the morning traffic there is so bad. Really can’t imagine what the place would be like when there’s a track fault or train delay. To make things worse, bus 252 which I need to take is at berth 9, right at the extreme left end of boon lay’s gigantic circular bus interchange. Very far loh and I queued at the wrong lane before. The queues are so long you can hardly tell which belongs to which bus number until I see people boarding the bus but my queue didn’t seem to be moving.
Actually I feel like quitting already; maybe because I’m lazy. It’d be great if I can work on alternate days. If I want to quit, there shouldn’t be any problems with the job agency. But how should I break the news to my direct supervisor. Even if she doesn’t blow her top – spending so much time teaching me how to do stuff and me irritating her with questions – I think she’ll curse and swear at me every day after i leave. The best thing now is if they find a permanent, I have all the reasons to stop working. Then again, if I go somewhere else, won’t I have to pick up from scratch and go through all the pain again?
The receptionist at the 1st floor counter seems to be having an easier time than me. General enquiry phone calls are rare. It makes sense doesn’t it? How many people need to call a crane company? She spends her work hours watching vcds like CSI, FBI, etc. She needs only to help us mail out the letters. My supervisor makes me call Fedex all the time so sparing the receptionist of more work. I’ve called Fedex quite a number of times to send documents and parcels to China, Malaysia, Korea, etc. The number of times which they call Fedex is more than the times we send emails. Never mind that when I’m filling out the form, I can’t tell which is city and which is province. Because the company wants to cut cost, the pen we are using now is so lousy no matter how hard I press, the carbon print on the last sheet is still very faint. But Fedex is really Fedex. It’s so fast. The thing I want to send out always disappears the next moment I go to the counter. Fedex must be a really really huge company with tons of workers. Can’t imagine the amount of paperwork they need to do. Fedex is literally operating all over the world!!! I wonder if they serve Sahara Desert too.
Of course there’re good things to be mentioned too. The radio is always on in the office so it’s good for me at least because absolute silence like in the church office unsettles me. But coz the radio is so lau pok and dusty, it sometimes changes channels on its own. Lol...Because someone drives, we get to go to a different place every day for lunch. They are used to their 45 minutes lunch break, so they walk and eat really fast. Stressed stressed......
Since my office is located somewhere in the Jurong West Tuas area, there’re plenty of warehouses there. 3 of my colleagues including my boss are mad over the bed sheet warehouse sale. They have decided white is a bad colour to buy because the side where the husband sleeps always ends up with some dirty yellow mark, the outline of the body. What is this man? Never heard of such a thing in my life!!! On Friday, there’ll be a Meiji warehouse sale. Oh man, I love meiji. I recall how I was addicted to chocobeats for a period. I ate almost 10 tubes until I got sick of it. Not to mention I ate so much of Sam Leong’s chocobaby. So I’ll see how and try to buy as much as I can. :p
So far I’ve been pretty accurate with the numbers portion of my work. Does it mean I’ll make an ok accountant? Haha...
The receptionist at the 1st floor counter seems to be having an easier time than me. General enquiry phone calls are rare. It makes sense doesn’t it? How many people need to call a crane company? She spends her work hours watching vcds like CSI, FBI, etc. She needs only to help us mail out the letters. My supervisor makes me call Fedex all the time so sparing the receptionist of more work. I’ve called Fedex quite a number of times to send documents and parcels to China, Malaysia, Korea, etc. The number of times which they call Fedex is more than the times we send emails. Never mind that when I’m filling out the form, I can’t tell which is city and which is province. Because the company wants to cut cost, the pen we are using now is so lousy no matter how hard I press, the carbon print on the last sheet is still very faint. But Fedex is really Fedex. It’s so fast. The thing I want to send out always disappears the next moment I go to the counter. Fedex must be a really really huge company with tons of workers. Can’t imagine the amount of paperwork they need to do. Fedex is literally operating all over the world!!! I wonder if they serve Sahara Desert too.
Of course there’re good things to be mentioned too. The radio is always on in the office so it’s good for me at least because absolute silence like in the church office unsettles me. But coz the radio is so lau pok and dusty, it sometimes changes channels on its own. Lol...Because someone drives, we get to go to a different place every day for lunch. They are used to their 45 minutes lunch break, so they walk and eat really fast. Stressed stressed......
Since my office is located somewhere in the Jurong West Tuas area, there’re plenty of warehouses there. 3 of my colleagues including my boss are mad over the bed sheet warehouse sale. They have decided white is a bad colour to buy because the side where the husband sleeps always ends up with some dirty yellow mark, the outline of the body. What is this man? Never heard of such a thing in my life!!! On Friday, there’ll be a Meiji warehouse sale. Oh man, I love meiji. I recall how I was addicted to chocobeats for a period. I ate almost 10 tubes until I got sick of it. Not to mention I ate so much of Sam Leong’s chocobaby. So I’ll see how and try to buy as much as I can. :p
So far I’ve been pretty accurate with the numbers portion of my work. Does it mean I’ll make an ok accountant? Haha...
Random stuff
To Elisabeth, last week’s digital life section of The Straits Times featured very pretty and classy laptop bags but quite expensive also. At least there’re already such bags out there which can out so many other things apart from the laptop, so I don’t need to design one for you anymore! Lol..............
I never had much luck in lucky draws – those you send in or during prom nights, lucky dips, spinning the wheel, scratching the card which is very fun, those win-things-by-chance events. So I certainly believe lotteries, sweepstakes, Toto and 4D are a total waste of money. I did this survey for brightsparks hoping I would actually win the top prize of a itouch but yea, obviously I didn’t get it. This captions contest in the weekly Sunday Times seems attractive and maybe my chances will be quite high since people hate to use their brains to think. But neither do I; no time to think and don’t want to kill my brain cells either. As if not enough are dead. The last time I really won something should be eons ago. It was this travel scrabble set which I got from NKF at that time. Hope it was bought legitimately. Haha.... love it a lot coz I love scrabble.
Do you know Felicia Chin changed her chinese name since four months ago? Not like anyone would care but her new name’s quite nice. Her old name, feng ling, sounds like feng li which is a pear. Haha...
Do you know Felicia Chin changed her chinese name since four months ago? Not like anyone would care but her new name’s quite nice. Her old name, feng ling, sounds like feng li which is a pear. Haha...
Prayer for 11 May to 17 May
Thank God for our earthly parents who are providing us with the best of everything they could give with a simple wish that we can stay happy and comfortable. Ask God to help us love them verbally, physically, patiently, gratefully, generously, attentively and honourably although it may seem difficult or impossible at times. Pray for any problems, if there are, between our parents and us to be resolved by God’s divine intervention. At times, we may not understand where our parents are coming from or what is going through their mind. Other times, our parents just appear plain unreasonable and overly-protective. Whichever the case, pray that God will be the bridge between us; that as we seek to grow closer to Lord Jesus, our love for our parents will increase also.
meapple
Mid week meeting on the 15th May
Hello everyone, this weeks mid week meeting will be on Thursday, at 6pm at holland village. The restaurant we will be eating at is called Essential Brews. It is along the row of shops where swensens and starbucks is. The price range is from 20.95 to 25.95 for a set dinner. It is inclusive of a soup of the day, a drink, and a main course. Most of the dishes and drinks there are flavoured with floral or tea herbs, and there are many unique interesting dishes. Also, nerine will be joining us this week, so ya! Hope to see you there! Please Sms me confirmation by Wednesday night!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Heya, i have an idea...
Hey meapple! Im glad to see you still posting! The past weekend i was sick and feeling not just a little lethargic, so i did not check the website or post anything, and i was afraid that you might feel like you were talking to yourself afterall and stop too, so ya, im glad i worried for nothing :). This week nerine's SYF is over on tuesday, so she would be joining us for our mid week meeting, bringing the number to about five out of nine :). P.S im also hoping she would start posting regularly. I think if we persevere we might actually reach 7/9 eventually or even 9/9 on certain weeks. But besides the joy of seeing everyone making time to turn up everyweek, im glad to see that our pcm is growing closer. The more we communicate, the more we will know about each others' thoughts and lives, building a stronger friendship between us. I feel that this is very important, to build a sphere of trust and faith outside of our seperate lives, so that when one of us is in need of help, we are there to provide unjudgemental and stauch support. Not to say that we should not rely on God, or that he alone is not sufficient for our needs, but people are also tools used by God, like the three friends who loved Job enough to travel all the way to his house during his trials, to sit with him without uttering a word for seven days, unable to provide comfort, but unwilling to give up. I wonder, at this stage if one of us were to end up in the hospital, how many of us would be willing to take time away from our busy schedules to go visit? Im not sure if i will. But i hope in the future when i hear such dire news, my first question would be " which hospital? " instead of merely " what happened? ".
Anyway, i was traveling on the bus today, when i had an idea. To help us know more about each other, i propose to start a chain mail. Not those bad luck letters that curse you if u dont send to other people, but one that hopefully would demostrate how things will bear fruit in time. Let me explain myself. It would be an envelope containing a piece of paper segmented into nine portions, each portion bearing each of our names. We would write a single word describing that person under his assigned portion, and then mail it to the next person, who would do the same thing and so on. finally when it comes back to the original person( probably me ), i would flip the paper over and segment it again into nine portions, writing each of your names at the top again. Then i would write TWO words i think describes each of you under the assigned portion. On the next cycle i would add another piece of paper, and the description would be THREE words. The objective would be to see how our views of each other grows as our friendship progresses. It would also be a form of encouragement as we affirm each other. As the number of words increase, they would not need to be in sentences, it can just be individual words, eg ( Proud, Kind, Bluntly honest, Fiercely intelligent, happy-go-lucky ) What do you think? Any suggestions or objections? Please comment and tell me what you think.
Anyway, i was traveling on the bus today, when i had an idea. To help us know more about each other, i propose to start a chain mail. Not those bad luck letters that curse you if u dont send to other people, but one that hopefully would demostrate how things will bear fruit in time. Let me explain myself. It would be an envelope containing a piece of paper segmented into nine portions, each portion bearing each of our names. We would write a single word describing that person under his assigned portion, and then mail it to the next person, who would do the same thing and so on. finally when it comes back to the original person( probably me ), i would flip the paper over and segment it again into nine portions, writing each of your names at the top again. Then i would write TWO words i think describes each of you under the assigned portion. On the next cycle i would add another piece of paper, and the description would be THREE words. The objective would be to see how our views of each other grows as our friendship progresses. It would also be a form of encouragement as we affirm each other. As the number of words increase, they would not need to be in sentences, it can just be individual words, eg ( Proud, Kind, Bluntly honest, Fiercely intelligent, happy-go-lucky ) What do you think? Any suggestions or objections? Please comment and tell me what you think.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Find Us Faithful
On Monday, I decided to be healthy and so went for a slow jog in the evening. I ended up walking half the time... There’s quite a lot of people given it is a normal working weekday, so either these people are super ultra rich and therefore don’t need to work or they are simply too healthy!!! It seems like the government’s effort in promoting healthy living through physical exercise kind of paid off :) Congratulations!
A couple of interesting observations made. I saw this dog literally wearing ‘shoes’. I haven’t seen a dog wear something like that except of course on tv when their owners dress them up like a clown for Christmas parties. These shoes I saw weren’t those pretty canvas types with laces and definitely not shiny heels or beach sandals.....haha.... From a distance, it looked like each foot was bundled with a black garbage bag. It’s quite a funny sight; at least it drew quite a few stares apart from mine. On a closer look, the shoes look quite comfy and for a while, it reminded me of the bandits in maplestory (for those who have played it before) because of the black gloves they wear. I hope the owner wasn’t afraid the little run would actually dirty his doggy’s feet coz that’s totally a clean freak :O
Then, I saw this Caucasian family also with a dog. Don’t ask me what breed, I never bothered. Just another skinny dog. Lady boss keeps stopping to teach the dog some manners because it was obviously pushing and it ain’t a very nice thing to do. So she at the top of her voice said, “Dog, you are pushing..............naughty dog.” This poor dog hasn’t a name so it’s called DOG. I realised a similarity there in training obedience in both an animal and a child. The other day when the kindergarten children were making their way to the pantry for breakfast, the teacher was holding back this girl at the lift lobby. The teacher told the girl that she is no to jump in the lift again. The girl was allowed to go off only after she responded. Quite similar eh except that the dog can’t say yes. It’s obviously a nightmare raising kids, and it doesn’t seem any easier training a dog. So why d people find trouble for themselves? Dog-lovers, please enlighten me!!!
Today I went to SGH to visit my uncle. All the beds were occupied. A lot of operations going on nowadays. 5 out of 6 in the ward are elderly men. Weird thing, men hurt themselves more easily? The remaining guy was a pretty young man, a tough-looking one in fact. He hurt his right elbow i suppose and therefore an interesting way of wearing his shirt. Basically the right arm didn’t go through the sleeve. Imagine!!! Looks quite man loh. One of the times when you can see the weak side of a guy is probably this ba.
Pastor Lynette has covered pretty thoroughly on how faith without deeds is dead. I’m inspired to touch a bit on faith on a personal level, something which I shared for devotions in TRACkers. The scripture reading is taken from Genesis 12. We all know Abraham is a god-fearing man and a man of great faith. Nearly every time God instructs him to do something, he proceeds without questioning.
What’s interesting in the first four verses is that God wants Abraham to leave his homeland and everything behind. And he followed with obedience. In the later chapters, this same obedience is demonstrated. He just believed that God would deliver on His promise. Like later on in Genesis 22, Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. He actually did just as he was told without hesitation. And seeing his faithfulness, an angel came to stop him as he prepared to slay his son with the knife. We look at ourselves and we realize that ‘Hey, why can’t we be like Abraham’. We ask ourselves: Do we question or doubt God every time He tells us to do something that perhaps disrupts our own plans or gets in the way of things that we want to achieve.
But we can take comfort in that Abraham has times when he lacked faith too. In Gen 12:10-20, the king shows Abram if he trusted in God and told the truth, everything would have been all right. Pharaoh was so far from any design to kill Abraham. Instead, he took particular care of him. Pharaoh charged his men not to hurt Abram in any thing even after the truth was uncovered. But Abraham was so fearful that he got his wife and servants to tell a lie to ensure his safety. We often perplex ourselves with fears which are altogether groundless. Many a time we fear where no fear is. Even if there’s a reason to fear, we pray to commit to God all our anxieties but we don’t really trust completely because we are so gripped by fear. Although we understand the nature of our Father, we are just afraid that we’re taking the wrong step in life when pursuing the various educational careers and options, afraid we won’t rise to where we are, afraid we can’t get a certain GPA, afraid our Sec 1s will not grow up into Godly men and women under us, afraid of deaths around us, afraid our God has been a lie all this while, etc (I’m not sure if you fear and what you fear).
We need not be discouraged. Abraham also showed a lack of faith before but God is in the business of growing Abraham into a man of great faith, and this requires circumstances where Abraham must trust God. Likewise, we should seek to grow in faith. Faith is an amazing thing. It is believing that the blessing of the Almighty would make up for all we could lose or leave behind, supply all our wants and answer and exceed all our desires. When we have faith, we are not easily discouraged by the difficulties in our way. What we undertake, in obedience to God's command, and in humble attendance on his providence, will certainly succeed and end with comfort at last. I am still learning too....
This irish prayer was given to us on a small card by our teachers before our O levels which I still find relevant today:
May God give you...
For every STORM, a RAINBOW,
For every TEAR, a SMILE,
For every CARE, a PROMISE,
And a BLESSING in each TRIAL.
For every PROBLEM life sends,
A FAITHFUL FRIEND to share,
For every SIGH, a SWEET SONG,
And an ANSWER for each PRAYER.
PRAYER for May 4 - May 10
Thank you, Father, for revealing your faithfulness to us time and time again. Forgive us, oh Lord, when we of little faith choose to take things in our own hands. Father, whichever level of faith we each are at now, help us to grow deeper in faith. Take our faith to a new level because want You to use the events in our life to teach us what faith is all about. Father, we also want to pray for faith to be no longer something we keep to ourselves. Because of the faith we have in You, help us to practise it through deeds which are seen by our family, neighbours, freinds and spheres of influence. For we know that as the body is dead without th Spirit, faith without deeds is dead also. Thank you for promising us salvation as long as we have the faith but help us understand that Christian living isn't just about paying lip service and telling others how important faith is. Many times in life we have to walk in faith, so grant us the peace which transcends all understanding, claiming the promise that You have nothing but the best for us. Amen.
“Faith is not a mushroom that grows overnight in damp soil; it is an oak tree that grows for a thousand years under the blast of the wind and rain.” (Barnhouse)
A couple of interesting observations made. I saw this dog literally wearing ‘shoes’. I haven’t seen a dog wear something like that except of course on tv when their owners dress them up like a clown for Christmas parties. These shoes I saw weren’t those pretty canvas types with laces and definitely not shiny heels or beach sandals.....haha.... From a distance, it looked like each foot was bundled with a black garbage bag. It’s quite a funny sight; at least it drew quite a few stares apart from mine. On a closer look, the shoes look quite comfy and for a while, it reminded me of the bandits in maplestory (for those who have played it before) because of the black gloves they wear. I hope the owner wasn’t afraid the little run would actually dirty his doggy’s feet coz that’s totally a clean freak :O
Then, I saw this Caucasian family also with a dog. Don’t ask me what breed, I never bothered. Just another skinny dog. Lady boss keeps stopping to teach the dog some manners because it was obviously pushing and it ain’t a very nice thing to do. So she at the top of her voice said, “Dog, you are pushing..............naughty dog.” This poor dog hasn’t a name so it’s called DOG. I realised a similarity there in training obedience in both an animal and a child. The other day when the kindergarten children were making their way to the pantry for breakfast, the teacher was holding back this girl at the lift lobby. The teacher told the girl that she is no to jump in the lift again. The girl was allowed to go off only after she responded. Quite similar eh except that the dog can’t say yes. It’s obviously a nightmare raising kids, and it doesn’t seem any easier training a dog. So why d people find trouble for themselves? Dog-lovers, please enlighten me!!!
Today I went to SGH to visit my uncle. All the beds were occupied. A lot of operations going on nowadays. 5 out of 6 in the ward are elderly men. Weird thing, men hurt themselves more easily? The remaining guy was a pretty young man, a tough-looking one in fact. He hurt his right elbow i suppose and therefore an interesting way of wearing his shirt. Basically the right arm didn’t go through the sleeve. Imagine!!! Looks quite man loh. One of the times when you can see the weak side of a guy is probably this ba.
Pastor Lynette has covered pretty thoroughly on how faith without deeds is dead. I’m inspired to touch a bit on faith on a personal level, something which I shared for devotions in TRACkers. The scripture reading is taken from Genesis 12. We all know Abraham is a god-fearing man and a man of great faith. Nearly every time God instructs him to do something, he proceeds without questioning.
What’s interesting in the first four verses is that God wants Abraham to leave his homeland and everything behind. And he followed with obedience. In the later chapters, this same obedience is demonstrated. He just believed that God would deliver on His promise. Like later on in Genesis 22, Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. He actually did just as he was told without hesitation. And seeing his faithfulness, an angel came to stop him as he prepared to slay his son with the knife. We look at ourselves and we realize that ‘Hey, why can’t we be like Abraham’. We ask ourselves: Do we question or doubt God every time He tells us to do something that perhaps disrupts our own plans or gets in the way of things that we want to achieve.
But we can take comfort in that Abraham has times when he lacked faith too. In Gen 12:10-20, the king shows Abram if he trusted in God and told the truth, everything would have been all right. Pharaoh was so far from any design to kill Abraham. Instead, he took particular care of him. Pharaoh charged his men not to hurt Abram in any thing even after the truth was uncovered. But Abraham was so fearful that he got his wife and servants to tell a lie to ensure his safety. We often perplex ourselves with fears which are altogether groundless. Many a time we fear where no fear is. Even if there’s a reason to fear, we pray to commit to God all our anxieties but we don’t really trust completely because we are so gripped by fear. Although we understand the nature of our Father, we are just afraid that we’re taking the wrong step in life when pursuing the various educational careers and options, afraid we won’t rise to where we are, afraid we can’t get a certain GPA, afraid our Sec 1s will not grow up into Godly men and women under us, afraid of deaths around us, afraid our God has been a lie all this while, etc (I’m not sure if you fear and what you fear).
We need not be discouraged. Abraham also showed a lack of faith before but God is in the business of growing Abraham into a man of great faith, and this requires circumstances where Abraham must trust God. Likewise, we should seek to grow in faith. Faith is an amazing thing. It is believing that the blessing of the Almighty would make up for all we could lose or leave behind, supply all our wants and answer and exceed all our desires. When we have faith, we are not easily discouraged by the difficulties in our way. What we undertake, in obedience to God's command, and in humble attendance on his providence, will certainly succeed and end with comfort at last. I am still learning too....
This irish prayer was given to us on a small card by our teachers before our O levels which I still find relevant today:
May God give you...
For every STORM, a RAINBOW,
For every TEAR, a SMILE,
For every CARE, a PROMISE,
And a BLESSING in each TRIAL.
For every PROBLEM life sends,
A FAITHFUL FRIEND to share,
For every SIGH, a SWEET SONG,
And an ANSWER for each PRAYER.
PRAYER for May 4 - May 10
Thank you, Father, for revealing your faithfulness to us time and time again. Forgive us, oh Lord, when we of little faith choose to take things in our own hands. Father, whichever level of faith we each are at now, help us to grow deeper in faith. Take our faith to a new level because want You to use the events in our life to teach us what faith is all about. Father, we also want to pray for faith to be no longer something we keep to ourselves. Because of the faith we have in You, help us to practise it through deeds which are seen by our family, neighbours, freinds and spheres of influence. For we know that as the body is dead without th Spirit, faith without deeds is dead also. Thank you for promising us salvation as long as we have the faith but help us understand that Christian living isn't just about paying lip service and telling others how important faith is. Many times in life we have to walk in faith, so grant us the peace which transcends all understanding, claiming the promise that You have nothing but the best for us. Amen.
“Faith is not a mushroom that grows overnight in damp soil; it is an oak tree that grows for a thousand years under the blast of the wind and rain.” (Barnhouse)
P.S. Jun Bin, remind me to give you your Christmas card!!!
meapple
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